Resources for Research on Analogy

115 Pages·2009·0.97 MB·English

by  Informal Logic

Resources for Research on Analogy:
A Multi-disciplinary Guide

MARCELLO GUARINI(cid:13)
Department of Philosophy
University of Windsor
Windsor, ON
Canada
[email protected]

AMY BUTCHART
Department of Philosophy
Guelph University
Gulph, ON
Canada
[email protected]

PAUL SIMARD SMITH
Department of Philosophy
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, ON
Canada
[email protected]

ANDREI MOLDOVAN
Faculty of Philosophy
Department of Logic, History and Philosophy of Science
University of Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
[email protected]

* The first author wishes to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada for financial support over the four years
during which this project was completed.

©Marcello Guarini, Amy Butchart, Paul Simard Smith, Andrei Moldovan.
Informal Logic, Vol. 29, No.2, pp. 84-197.
Resources for Research on Analogy 85
Abstract: Work on analogy has been done from a number of disciplinary
perspectives throughout the history of Western thought. This work is a
multidisciplinary guide to theorizing about analogy. It contains 1,406
references, primarily to journal articles and monographs, and primarily to
English language material. Classical through to contemporary sources are
included. The work is classified into eight different sections (with a number of
subsections). A brief introduction to each section is provided. Keywords and
key expressions of importance to research on analogy are discussed in the
introductory material. Electronic resources for conducting research on analogy
are listed as well.

Résumé: Diverses perspectives disciplinaires à travers l’histoire de la pensée
occidentale ont contribué à la recherche sur les analogies. Cet article est un
guide multidisciplinaire sur la théorie de l’analogie. Il y contient 1,406
références tirées principalement des articles et de livres anglophones. On y
inclut des sources classiques et contemporaines, ainsi que des sources
électroniques. Huit sections classifient ce matériel. Une brève introduction, dans
laquelle on identifie des mots clefs importants pour faciliter la recherche,
précède chaque section.

Keywords: Aesthetics, argument scheme, art, axiomatic approach, bijection,
case based reasoning (CBR), case law, casuistry, cognition, common law,
engineering, ethics, example, exemplar, frame, homology, homomorphism,
homoplasty, isomorphism, language, law, literature, logic, logical
reconstruction, mathematics, mental model, metaphor, mind, model, model
based reasoning, legal particularism, memory, mental space mapping (or
conceptual blending), moral particularism, paradigm, pedagogy, precedent,
problem solving, prototype, qiyas, ratio dicindi, reasoning, religion, retrieval,
sciences (natural and social), similarity, simulation theory, simulationism,
scheme, stare decicis, structure mapping, theology, visual analogy.
86 Marcello Guarini et al.
Contents

Introduction
Scope and Limits
Division of Work
Other Key Expressions
Sections and Subsections (Descriptions)
1. Arts or Aesthetics
2. Normative Treatments of Action
2.1 Law
2.2 Ethics or Action
3. Religion or Theology: Language, Logic, or Metaphysics
4. Sciences or Engineering
5. Mathematics
6. Mind, Consciousness, or Cognition
7. General or Wide Ranging
7.1 Child Development, Learning, Pedagogy, and Problem
Solving
7.2 Language or Metaphysics
7.3 Visual Analogy
7.4 Animal
7.5 Memory or Retrieval
7.6 Logic
7.7 Various
8. Other
Further Resources
References (Lists of References)
1. Arts or Aesthetics
2. Normative Treatments of Action
2.1 Law
2.2 Ethics or Action
3. Religion or Theology: Language, Logic, or Metaphysics
4. Sciences or Engineering
5. Mathematics
6. Mind, Consciousness, or Cognition
7. General or Wide Ranging
7.1 Child Development, Learning, Pedagogy, and Problem
Solving
7.2 Language or Metaphysics
7.3 Visual Analogy
7.4 Animal
7.5 Memory or Retrieval
7.6 Logic
7.7 Various
8. Other
Resources for Research on Analogy 87
Introduction

Many different things have been referred to as analogies or as analogous,
and analogy has been studied from a number of disciplinary perspectives.
This work brings together research from different fields to provide a
useful reference tool both to those starting out in their research on
analogy and to experts who may want a resource guide to inform future
work. The research referenced includes, but is not limited to, work from
argumentation theory, artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive science,
linguistics, mathematics, natural sciences, philosophy, psychology, and
(other) social sciences.
This collection of work strives to be inclusive not only in the sense
of listing work from different disciplines, but also with respect to
different understandings of analogy. While much of the work is
contemporary, classical and medieval sources are included as well. This
introduces terminological issues that affect the substantive scope of the
project. For example, the classical Greek term for analogy (analogia or
αναλογία) is sometimes translated as “proportion”, which would include
ratios (2 is to 4 as 4 is to 8). More recent uses of “analogy” do not
always capture some of its more classical uses. It is worth keeping in
mind this diversity of uses since some work referenced herein may
contain few if any uses of “analogy” but perhaps many references to
“proportion” (as in some of Aristotle’s texts).
A mere reference to or use of analogy is insufficient for a work to be
included in this collection. The work we have included attempts to
theorize about or otherwise elucidate one or more of the uses of analogy.
The next section outlines the scope of the work included.

Scope and Limits

This work does not attempt an exhaustive cataloguing of all work done
on analogy. Perhaps the most obvious limit is that it primarily catalogues
work in English. Where this English language work cites foreign
language work, that foreign language work on analogy has been
included. Similarly, the bulk of the work referenced herein is from
Western academic traditions; where non-Western work has been cited by
Western work, it has been included. With respect to the form of
publication, we are primarily concerned to catalogue journal articles and
monographs. Some high caliber encyclopedia entries (for example,
entries from MIT CogNet or the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
are also included. Textbooks and papers in conference proceedings are
not generally included, though there are exceptions. The number of
introductory textbooks in ethics, law, logic, reasoning skills, and the like
are legion, and many of them mention analogy. The guiding concern
throoughout this work has been to make this collection of resources as
useful as possible to researchers looking for advanced theorizing about
88 Marcello Guarini et al.
analogy. If a textbook is cited and engaged in journal articles or
monographs (i.e. the theoretical literature) on analogy, then it is included.
With respect to papers in conference proceedings, they are included
either if they are cited in the theoretical literature or if they are part of a
major theorist’s body of work on analogy. Paper versions of conference
proceedings for conferences devoted entirely to analogy are also
included. A list of research tools is included below (Further Resources)
for those who may wish to pursue a more exhaustive study of work
devoted or related to analogy. Some of these resources can be especially
useful in locating material in conference proceedings.

Division of Work

There are different ways to divide up a collection of references. Each
will have its own advantages and disadvantages. The principal decision
we faced was whether to divide references by the subject matter of the
analogy or the disciplinary or methodological approach taken to the
subject. Our guiding concern throughout was to make this work as useful
as possible to researchers, and this led us to group references by subject
matter. If we had grouped work by disciplinary approach, then the
section on philosophical approaches would include philosophical
reflections on analogy in ethics, law, natural science, mathematics,
religion, social science, and other areas as well. Something similar
would happen if we grouped all work in AI in one section. There is an
advantage to this approach: those interested, say, only in work in AI on
analogy would could go to one section and get exactly what is desired.
There are also disadvantages. First, much work on analogy tends to be
domain specific. It is work on analogy in Law, or analogy in one or more
of the Natural Sciences, or in Mathematics, and so on. Dividing work by
discipline or methodological approach would make it much more
difficult to find the work on analogy focused on a specific subject matter.
Second, even when work on analogy is clearly making use of methods
from a specific discipline, it is not unusual for that work to cite research
from other disciplines. For example, there is no shortage of work in AI
or Law that cites work in Philosophy. Given that much work is subject
or domain specific, and given that researchers are often interested in
making use of work outside their own discipline when theorizing about
analogy in a particular domain, dividing work up by the subject matter of
the analogy is looking increasingly well motivated. Third, there are
times when it is very difficult to be clear on what exactly the disciplinary
approach is. There is overlap between Cognitive Science and AI, and
Cognitive Science and Linguistics, and Cognitive Science and
Psychology. Dividing work up by the subject matter of the analogy
largely side-steps these issues. For example, if the subject matter of the
anaogy is mind or mental states, then the work is placed in the Mind,
Consciousness, or Cognition section (regarless of whether the work is
Resources for Research on Analogy 89
done by an AI researcher, a cognitive scientist, a philosopher, or a
psychologist).
Of course, focusing on the subject matter of the analogy has its own
problems. It turns out that much work on analogy is general or wide
ranging in nature. In other words, it is not aimed at a specific subject or
domain (Law, Mathematics, or whatever), or it is specifically aimed at
two or more domains. For this reason, there is a section entitled General
or Wide Ranging, and it contains several subsections. While this may
seem a bit of an awkward accommodation, we prefer it over a
disciplinary or methodological division of work. The reason is that even
within the individual subsections of the General or Wide Ranging
category, work from different disciplines using different methods can be
found. The preceding not withstanding, there are still difficulties with an
approach focused on subject matter. Sometimes, it is not always clear
what counts as a subject matter. Is visual reasoning a distinct subject
matter? Should work on visual analogy be seen as a distinct subject
matter and collected under one heading? It is a tough call. Some work
on visual analogy fits neatly in the Science or Engineering section since
it deals with a scientific subject, so we placed it in that section; some
work on visual analogy is more general, and this is why we collected
such work in one of the subsections of the General or Wide Ranging
category. That said, we could see how there could be differences of
opinion, and we recognize that there would be some utility in collecting
all work on visual analogy in one section (even if some of it is devoted
specifically to natural science). Each of the sections and subsections
below contains a brief summary of the contents of that section. In cases
where there is not general agreement on what constitutes a domain or
subject matter, we have endeavored to make it clear how work has been
classified.

Other Key Expressions

Given the number of approaches to the study of analogy and the variety
of phenomena referred to as analogies or analogous, it is not surprising
that there is a variety of key terms and expressions associated with the
study of analogy. Some of these terms are summarized here, and they
will be indicated in bold print in what follows for easy identification.
Argument scheme, axiomatic approach, bijection, case based
reasoning (CBR), case law, casuistry, common law, example, exemplar,
frame, homology, homomorphism, homoplasty, isomorphism, mental
model, metaphor, model, model based reasoning, legal particularism,
mental space mapping (or conceptual blending), moral particularism,
paradigm, precedent, prototype, qiyas, ratio dicindi, similarity,
simulation theory, simulationism, scheme, stare decicis, structure
mapping, visual analogy.
90 Marcello Guarini et al.

Sections and Subsections

The first three sections below list work where the subject of analogy
includes topics of concern often falling under the heading humanities.
This is not to say that the work is done only by those in the humanities.
Far from it. Much work on analogy in law has been done by researchers
in AI. Sections four and five deal with analogy in the sciences (including
engineering) and mathematics. Again, contributions to analogy in these
domains need not come from its practitioners. Philosophers of science
and mathematics have contributed to understanding analogy in these
areas. For reasons explained in section six, analogies taking as their
subject mind or cognition are collected under one heading. Work on
analogy that is of a more general or wide ranging nature is collected in
section seven, and work that does not fit into any of the preceding
categories is collected in section eight.

1. Arts or Aesthetics
2. Normative Treatments of Action
2.1 Law
2.2 Ethics or Action
3. Religion or Theology: Language, Logic, or
Metaphysics
4. Sciences or Engineering
5. Mathematics
6. Mind, Consciousness, or Cognition
7. General or Wide Ranging
7.1 Child Development, Learning, Pedagogy,
and Problem Solving
7.2 Language or Metaphysics
7.3 Visual Analogy
7.4 Animal
7.5 Memory or Retrieval
7.6 Logic
7.7 Various
8. Other

1. Arts or Aesthetics

Work in this section takes as its subject matter art or aesthetic
considerations. While there is not a lot of work listed here, researchers
are encouraged to examine work in the General or Wide Ranging
sections that may be of relevance. For example, section 7.3 on visual
analogy contains material on analogy that could be of interest to
practitioners of the fine arts. Section 7.2 contains material on the
Resources for Research on Analogy 91
relationship between metaphor and analogy that may be of interest to
those studying literature. There is also work there that compares and
contrasts the language(s) of art with language from other domains.
Section 7.7 contains the most diverse collection of materials, some of
which might prove interesting for those studying analogy in the arts.

2. Normative Treatments of Action

Some analogies take action as their subject matter. Work concerned with
predicting or describing action using analogies is not listed in this
section. The work listed here takes as its subject matter the normative
treatment of action or related notions. Sometimes the analogy is about an
action directly: action x is immoral because it is analogous to action y,
which is clearly immoral. Sometimes, the analogy is about a concept
related to action. For example, it is possible to argue by analogy that x
constitutes a trade secret because y is generally agreed to constitute a
trade secret. While this is an argument about the legal concept of trade
secret, it is clearly connected to action since trade secrets are protected by
law, and actions can be classified as illegal if considered a violation of
trade secret law. While this section is about the normative treatment of
action, this does not mean that the subject matter of the analogy must be
action in every instance. Sometimes, concepts or rules (used in
normative reasoning about action) will be the primary subject matter of
the analogy.

2.1 Law

One of the most familiar forms of reasoning by analogy can be found in
law. There is a disputed case (the target), and someone reasons from
analogous case (the source) to support some conclusion about the target.
The target case is often distinguished from other possible sources. There
has been much disagreement about how to understand analogical legal
reasoning. While the work included in this section comes from a variety
of disciplinary perspectives, it concerns mostly analogies in law in the
English language legal traditions. Since this reference work is devoted
primarily to work in English, this is not surprising. That said, there is
work in English on analogy and case based reasoning in Islamic and
Jewish law, and it has been included. Those interested in analogy in
Islamic (specifically Suni) legal thought should research the term qiyas
(an Arabic expression translated as analogy or analogical reasoning).
Case based reasoning (CBR) is a subfield of AI research that has
intimate connections with analogy. Some of this work is in law; some of
it pertains to other domains. That said, the work in Law and AI draws
heavily on case based reasoners. Some of the work in this field,
92 Marcello Guarini et al.
especially as it pertains to analogy, has been included. See the section on
OTHER RESOURCES for how to find more work.
Precedent is a very important concept in law, so is the idea of
following precedent or staying decided – stare decisis. Linked to these
notions is the rationale on which a case is decided – the ratio decidendi.
In setting a precedent, a court will generally announce its ratio decidendi
which constrains future courts (though not absolutely) through the
doctrine of stare decisis. Work by philosophers, jurists, argumentation
theorists, and AI researchers have engaged all these notions in
conjunction with analogical, and more generally, case based reasoning.
Legal particularism is a view on the status of cases in legal reasoning,
and it too is relevant to the views that have been held on analogy. While
this reference work is not devoted to the key terms identified in bold,
some work pertaining to those concepts (as they pertain to analogy) has
been included. Researchers interested in more literature pertaining to the
concepts identified in bold are (again) encouraged to consult the tools
listed under Other Resources, especially those focusing on legal
resources.
Argument scheme is an expression used largely by
argumentation theorists and logicians. Work regarding the scheme(s)
that appropriately describe analogical arguments and how it (they) relate
to other schemes has been included. However, not all work on schemes
has been included, just the work engaging analogy.
Some of the work in this section includes theorizing about
analogies outside the law. For example Brewer (1996) offers a general
theory of analogy (not just of analogy in the law). However, the vast
majority of that paper deals with analogy in the law; all references to that
paper that we have found are by philosophers of law or jurisprudential
theorists, and the paper was published in the Harvard Law Review. So
while a case could be made that some of the work in this section could
have been placed in one of the General of Wide Ranging subsections, if
we judged the work to be primarily and mostly of concern to those
theorizing about analogy in the law, we placed it in this section.

2.2 Ethics or Action

Theorizing about the way analogy is used in ethical discourse is included
in this section. So is theorizing about analogy that pertains to evaluating
action more generally. Discussions of analogies in political or policy
discourses are included here. Discussions of analogy that engage more
than one area of evaluative discourse pertaining to action are included
here as well. For example, work that examines analogy in ethics and
law, or politics and law, or ethics and prudence fall in this section. Given
that some work takes up discussion of analogy in more than one domain
of action discourse, and given that there are disputes about how to
delineate some of the domains of action discourse, it is useful to group
these discourses on analogy together.
Resources for Research on Analogy 93
Casuistry is an approach (or family of approaches) to moral
reasoning (and reasoning about action more generally) stressing the
importance of cases. Moral particularism refers to a family of moral
philosophies stressing the importance of cases and downplaying (and
sometimes rejecting entirely) the importance of rules. When theorists
working in either of the aforementioned traditions engage analogy, their
work is included. Those doing research on analogy as used in ethics, or
action discourse more generally, may be interested in examining these
approaches since some (though certainly not all) views on analogy are
grounded in the theoretical presuppositions of these approaches. The
notion of argument scheme may be useful to those doing research on
analogy in action discourses beyond the law.

3. Religion or Theology: Language, Logic, or Metaphysics

While the work referenced in this section at least touches on religious or
theological thought, it would be a mistake to think that the authors
referenced here were only or even primarily interested in religious
language. Some medieval thinkers were interested in providing theories
of language, and analogy was part of the theory, and religious uses of
language were engaged, but there was more to both the theory of analogy
and the theory of language than its application to religious language.
Some of this work is sufficiently general and wide ranging – engaging a
variety of issues pertaining to the nature of language, logic, or
metaphysics – that a case could be made that it should be included in one
of the General or Wide Ranging sections below. That said, those doing
research on analogy in religion may find it useful to have references
engaging analogy in religious discourse collected in one section. Given
citation patterns, this also makes sense: while Aquinas and Cajetan have
views on analogy that go beyond its uses in religious discourse, more
recent authors who cite their work on analogy are often writing about
their views on religious language. Those interested in general
discussions of analogy that do not engage religious discourse are
encouraged to examine Section 7.
Metaphor and model come up in recent discussions of analogy in
religious discourse. When these discussions explicitly engage the issue
of analogy, they are included. However, not all work on metaphors and
models is included. Researchers interested in analogy in religious
language will likely find related discussions on metaphors and models to
be useful.